The game has been out since tuesday but there isn't a single review on gamerankings, Walmart didn't even have it, and my EB games only got 4 copies (one of which I purchased this evening). It was made by a new developer, and it a "budget title", that is to say it's only $40 instead of $50, and the developers didn't have a huge bundle of money to invest in it. But after having spent an hour and a half getting through the first area, I have to say I'm impressed with what little D3 managed to accomplish. 

 If anybody has looked into the game it's an action adventure title where the protaganist has a big flaming sword which his uses to kill vaste hordes of enemies, gradually gaining Dragon Powers  for MASSIVE DAMAGE. You can swing the wiimote up, down, left, right, or stab for his sword and it respond accordingly on screen, and various motions are used for the wiimote to utilize his dragon powers.

Anyway, my (lengthy) impressions after getting through the first big level (there are theoretically 6 main levels each with a huge dragon boss, but who knows there might be a final showdown plot twist 7th level), and spending around an hour and a half playing.

At first I was disapointed a bit with the controls, I had trouble stabbing at will, or doing downward slashes, and upward slashes when I needed to. But I was eating dinner at the time and sitting at an angle to the TV. After dinner I situated myself directly in front of the TV and it improved 100%. The downward slashes still seemed iffy, until I realized it was my natural motion confusing it. My natural inclination was to raise my hand and then bring it down to do a downward slash, but that just confused it. With a concise downward motion it responds just about perfectly. The combat has a suprising amount of depth to it, stringing together combos is easy and obvious and there are lots of combinations, left right up, renders a different end move than than right right up, or what have you, lots of combinations to expirement with. And you'll need to, the enemies respond differently to different kinds of attacks, spiders that are low to the ground take more damage from a downward strike, some enemies have better defense on a particular side so left swipes are different from right swipes, stabbing can hit only 1 enemy at a time (opposed to sideslashes that can hit large groups at a time) but has a good chance of scoring you dragon emblems that refill your special attack meter. You have good reason to use combos because as your consecutive number of combos rise, so does your speed and fire power, and I haven't gotten high enough to find out, but I imagine it gradually would boost other stats too. It takes about 5-10 seconds for your combo meter to reset, so you're encouraged to play aggressively, and keep fighting.

 The difficulty is good. It starts off pretty easy, but by the end of the first section I was having trouble, I even died a couple of times (once on the boss dragon, and once just before that in the stage leading up to him). The enemies are varied, and work well together, sometimes frustratingly so. Warthog type enemies will headbutt you to stun you, or knock you down, lizard men will swarm around you, archers and wizards will shoot from afar, and big minotaurs with act as the back bone letting the little guys keep you busy while they power up a big axe swing with long reach. This will all be in one fight with 20 or more guys. And wildly swinging your arm around will work in the beginning to defeat enemies, but after a while you really need to be precise and use the moves at your disposal, rather than just flailing about. They will kick your ass if you just flail about.

One worry I had watching trailers is that enemies would be repetive and drab, but I'm surprised with how many enemies I've fought just in the first section. I count at least 8 different types of enemies just in the beginning stages. The boss dragon was large, and a long and fairly epic fight. Not God Of War epic, but epic. The fight goes on for a while with the big fella changing his strategies after you do certain amounts of damage, and after you dwindle his health down to almost nothing a final combination of buttons and motion sequences ensues to finish him off with style, if you fail to press the right buttons or do the right motions then he gets a bit of his health back and you have to beat him back down to get another shot at it.

The graphics aren't too spectacular, but make up for it in a couple of ways. (1) the fact it really will throw alot of enemies at you (20 or so in some fights thus far, but I hear they get alot bigger) and do so moving with a very smooth solid framerate (I think 60 if I remember correctly). And again style wins out. and (2) while the surroundings and enemies haven't been anything to write home about so far, but the animations are great. Swinging around his 6 foot long sword made of fire feels very satisfying because he looks cool doing it. And when you get hit by a big minotaurs axe, you go flying through the air, hit the ground tumble, roll a few times, then skid another 5 or 10 feet to a halt. It really gives you the sense that you just got hit very hard, by something with very big muscles. Finishing a combo with an upward swing can lead to multiple enemies being catapulted into the air flipping a couple of times before landing on their back, while you continue to kick the asses of their many comrades. It feels good doing it.

 
If the game keeps at this quality and pace I would feel comfortable giving it a 7.5-maybe even 8 if the momentum picks up and the fights get really awesome. Or maybe down to 7 if it just gets to be a repetitive hack and slash that offers nothing new after the first 2 hours. 

Sounds ok. I can't see this doing too well - strikes me as the type of game this is "over-ambitious", given its development team and budget.

IGN will have a review of it up at some point - if it gets more than 6.5, I'll be impressed.

IGN were following the title with frequent Boss videos. They seem to like it, because they are nodging readers to buy it, showing support a-la Zack & Wiki. (Not to that extend,mind). If it gets over a 7 from them, sleeper hit possibility is strong.

It looked interesting when I first saw it but the more I saw from it the less interested I got. The last video I remember seeing was walking around a castle made entirely out of BSP with a single texture and had almost nothing in it in terms of props.

I'm glad you like it and I await the reviews. But I have a feeling that asside from the funky dragon hands, It'll largely be considered a pit stop on the way to Soul Calibur Legends.

Well now that I've spent a couple more hours with it I have to say I am in love with it. Not because it is the greatest game ever, or a AAA title out of the blue, I acknowledge is has some flaws. The camera could use some work for one, I mean it's not horrendous but in todays day and age cameras should be a big deal anymore. The graphics can be a bit sparse, but I'll be forgiving coming from a new developer that has really implemented some good concepts, and done them pretty well. The dragon battles can seem a bit long sometimes (fighting for 15-20 minutes and then dying makes it seem like a real drag when you start over from the beginning of the fight). But overall the good definitely outweighs the bad.

Something new I noticed is you can adjust the sensitivity of your wiimote and nunchuck (separately might I add), which I turned it up a bit, and it's actually helped with my accuracy of moves. If you want to have some real fun, turn it all the way down so that you actually have to swing your wiimote like a sword for it to recognize the movement (it's a workout after 10 minutes, let me tell you)

The stages are all replayable from the overworld map so you can go back to earlier levels with new powers. This is also useful because there are permanent powerups hidden in levels which I just found out. Each level has a shard of dragon armor, collect enough and you get a whole peice of armor that effects Dal's look, and increases his defense. You can also find stones that if you plunge your sword into they will permanently increase your health or fire power. So don't just run through the stage mindlessly killing everything, be sure to check all the branching paths to get all the goodies.

Furthermore you get awards at the end of each stage for enemies killed, hits taken, time completed, and items destroyed. So there is a bit of replay value to each stage, in addition to going back to find loot you missed the first time. You can try to top your fastest time (where combos will really come in handy since they increase your speed), or be a completionist and defeat every last enemy and destroy every last object. I don't know if you get anything for the medals, but I don't have very many yet so I couldn't say.

Really I love this game for one main reason. It's fun. I'm having a blast. There is something very very very, very satisfying about having two gigantic flaming arms and clapping your hands together in a big motion and watching the chaos that ensues. The combat is well done, and varied enough to keep you on your toes, difficult enough to keep it interesting (and sometimes frustrating), both qualities keep it from being mindless. And also, because the wii needed this. Just a good quality action game that shows what you can do with the wiimote. Actually putting your hands together, lifting them over your head and dropping them in order to create a massive shockwave generating hammer blow is far more satisfying and fun than pressing a button to do it. I can really see myself playing this game for a good while even after I've beaten it, much like Resident evil 4. It's fun, and the stages are broken up well so that you can sit and play for 20 minutes and feel like you've kicked some ass.

I really hope this game does well enough that D3 feels like it was a success and not a bomb.

I kinda wish to buy this now. I still lack a TV (Got a Wii about 2 months ago).

A TV is a necessary peripheral for this game. Sucks I know, Nintendo is trying to bleed us dry. But I have to say it does definitely improve the experience, it's not just a tacked on last minute thing.

I will admit, it is a solid effort with some gripes. However, I'm really not having that much fun playing.

I only just finished the first Dragon, and I am hoping to get some new dragon powers soon; truly, the more enjoyable segments of battle. Some of the battles are frustrating, and I believe that is what is taking away the fun for me.

I assume that if I continue to acquire abilities the combat will be more varied and, thus, more enjoyable.

Thanks Vagabond & DonWii for posted your experiences with this game. I am considering getting it myself. I look forward to hearing your take once you've finished the game (and how long it takes/replayability).